Morning Michelle!
Ugh.
She feels dizzy and her body is filled with a burning sensation.
She takes a step out of her preservation chamber and sits down on the
floor in front of it, putting her arms over her knees to rest her head.
I'm gonna ... need a moment.
Water?
She raises her head and Jack hands her a glass. After taking a couple
sips, she sets it down, unsure whether it helps or makes it worse, and
rests her head again.
Just let me sit here for a moment.
After a while, she lifts up her head again:
What year is it? ... and what's our
mission?
Twenty-one-oh-six. We don't have an
explicit mission, uplink's dead.
You're kidding.
Nope.
How'd you get woken up then?
Technical failure.
You survived that?
That was the least of my challenges.
Jack briefly recounts his side of the events of the past
amount of time as well as some of the things
he had read in the logs or talked about with Annie.
Michelle's dizziness goes away and the burning sensation in her body
begins to fade. She slowly gets up, takes a few cautious steps forward to
the table, and leans on it.
So? She looks at Jack.
What now? Any plans?
I guess, for now, exploring the area and
taking a look at the uplink. I wanna see if we can fix it.
Michelle thinks for a moment.
Sorry but I don't quite feel ready for
a hike like that. I'm gonna need a little bit longer.
Take your time.
After a short pause, Jack walks over to the kitchen area, saying:
If you want, I got some leftover baked potato
wedges...
Ooh yeah, something to eat would be really
nice right now. Did you make your usual spicy dip to go with them?
Yup.
He places a small bowl filled with a dark red paste on the table.
Then, he takes the Backblech? with the
wedges and puts it in the oven to reheat them.
Michelle turns around and picks up the glass off the floor before sitting down at the table. Idk they eat, guess I'll need to describe that in a bit more detail... Then they get ready to leave.
They step outside and, following what remains of the old path, start walking. It is narrow and winded, overgrown, and has partially disappeared. Jack walks ahead, only half following the path, half making it up as he goes. Michelle struggles to follow, slowly falling behind.
After a while, Jack stops abruptly, looking down at something, then up, then down again. Then, he turns to Michelle who is catching up to him and says: Well, that could be a reason why the uplink is down – it literally is down.... Michelle reaches the edge and and sees what Jack had stopped for: A large ravine? wash? extends towards the top of the mountain where a landslide had left nothing but a cliff and a huge pile of rubble. At the top of the mountain, teetering on the edge, are two buildings – all that's left of the ground station. The rest of the buildings and the dish lay strewn around in pieces down below.
Copyright © 2023 Jan Danielzick (aka. BodgeMaster) – All rights reserved.